Master Forgers Secret Swap Blog Hop

We are playing a game among the Master Forgers over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog, but we thought you'd like to peek in and see what's going on.  It's a secret style game where we were each given a questionnaire to outline our general scrapbooking style.  Then Lisa, our marvelous Design Team coordinator, mixed them all up and gave us one our fellow Master Forgers' answers to follow to create our own interpretation of that style through a layout.   The object of the game?  To possibly stretch yourself outside of your comfort zone and attempt to guess the fellow Master Forger you were assigned.  Let's give this a try.  Here's the criteria I was given to follow:

Starting Point:  Sketch
Background:  Primarily kraft cardstock
Moment/Everyday type story
Single page layout
Layers/Cluster with some angles
Geometric shapes and designs
Main Elements off center
Embellishments following a visual triangle with a clean and simple feel
4x6 Single photo layout
Trendy products
Feminine feel
Wet Techniques
Clean Margins
Handwritten journaling
Title using one alpha

Hmmmm...now which Master Forger could it possibly be?

Well, let's take a look at how I interpreted the criteria.  Here's my layout:

My starting point is usually with the photos, but for this assignment the starting point called for a sketch.  I created a very rudimentary sketch based on the information I was given.

  See, I told you it was rudimentary! I used a basic "L" shape to satisfy the geometric design requirement and placed the one 4x6 photo off-center at the intersection.  So far, none of these design choices were difficult for me to follow.  I think I generally place photos front and center and perhaps on an angle, but I was ok with this deviation from the norm.  I am totally comfortable with a 12x12 page and only one photo.  Speaking of the photo, I took this one especially for this layout.  It was definitely one of those "in the moment" type scenarios as I noticed how beautiful the tree looked as I was walking home from dropping the kids off at the bus stop this morning.  I also remembered that I never documented the story behind the tree.  This is all certainly well within my standard operating procedure.

Kraft cardstock was a MUST as the secret Master Forger said she primarily uses this type of cardstock.   I do like kraft a lot, but I often use patterened paper as my background.  So, this time around I had to be comfortable with a more neutral backdrop.  I grounded it on some rich patterned paper which created a clean margin around the entire layout.

  The gold doily is very on-trend and adds a feminine feel to the otherwise masculine colors on this page.  I added a few layers under the photo including the paper strip with the circles giving a nod to geometric shapes.  Again, all these decisions seem pretty comfortable to me. While I like to have trendy products, I am completely comfortable sneaking in some older products, too.

Embellishments and products came from a variety of sources (which is how I roll).  Love to mix it up!  You can see that they are clustered at the top of the photo, bottom of the photo and then above the title to the right creating a visual triangle.  Glittery maple leaves are so girlie and trendy feathers (in gold, no less) are all the rage!  And, those feathers tucked in at an angle keep the clusters looking natural and not like soldiers lined up on the page.

  Flair-like chipboard finish off these clusters, but keep them simple and clean. Personally, I may be tempted to add a few more things like some word stickers or wood veneers, but we must follow the orders of clean and simple.  And I do think my style slipped in here as technically I think the baker's twine jumble contradicts the clean and simple rule.  Ooops!   

I created my title with one alpha which isn't CRAZY different, but I do often mix my letter stickers and create smaller subtitles with tiny alphas.  For example, I may have included a subtitle that said, "in November" since our October Glory tree is most glorious in November!  A minor difference in my book.

Handwritten journaling is just the way I like it and I even had a misspelled word which I fixed with a little kraft cardstock patch.  Doesn't bother me a bit.  Keeps it all REAL!

As for wet techniques, they are not my "go-to"  but I'm not opposed to them either.  I used my Jenni Bowlin stencil and Tim Holtz Distress Inks to create feathers behind my green title banner as well as a spritz of Heidi Swapp's Gold Color Shine to add a little pizzazz to the kraft cardstock.  A few gold sequins sprinkled in and this layout is good to go.   Nothing says on-trend like sequins these days!

So overall, I didn't feel I had to stretch too far out of my comfort zone.  I do think I learned something about my style through this process.  You know what?   I really, really like trendy products!   Is that wrong?  Do I jump on every bandwagon?  It's not really how I operate in real life as I would consider myself pretty classic, but I do think I can embrace a little bit of everything...owls, feathers, gold...and even MUSTACHES in small doses!  If that's wrong, I DON'T WANT TO BE RIGHT!  I am such a practical person so I think following these trends is my little way of "living on the wild side"!

Here's another layout that I created following all of MY rules because that's the way (uh huh, uh huh) I like it (uh huh, uh huh)!  LOL!  This one is ALL Lynnette:

Now, who could my Secret Master Forger be?  

My guess is BETHANY!

 I spied quite a bit of kraft on the background of her pages and titles with single alphas.  Certainly, ANY of the Master Forgers would be wonderful to emulate and I enjoyed studying their blogs and admiring everyone's work to try to solve this mystery.  We shall see if I am correct!                                                       

Here's the order of the blog hop.  Your next stop will be Milissa and all of the mysteries will be solved at Lisa's post at the end, so be sure to keep hopping along!

Counterfeit Kit Challenge:http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com 

Angela:  http://colestoucan.blogspot.co.uk/

Bethany: http://inspiredscrapper-bethany.blogspot.com/

Dawn:  http://dawnsscrapbookcottage.blogspot.com

Jemma:  http://just-jimjams.blogspot.com/

Julene:  http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com.au

Lesley G.:  http://ohblogitifyoucantbeatthem.blogspot.co.uk

Leslie:  http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com 

Lynnette:  http://sassyscrapper2010.blogspot.com/

Millisa:  http://millermall.blogspot.com/

Stephanie:  http://skylinepaperie.blogspot.ca

Lisa H.:  http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com/